Those with a penchant for outdoor adventure, such as hikers, mountain climbers and whitewater enthusiasts, often find themselves in locations where standard communication services are lacking. Although cellular telephone towers seemingly are popping up everywhere one looks, in fact there are still many locations in the world were cellular telephone service is not available. In these out of the way areas, standard cellular phones are of little if any use in an emergency situation.
Dropouts in cellular telephone coverage are also a concern in the field of asset tracking services, such as services for locating stolen vehicles and tracking/monitoring valuable cargo or shipments of hazardous materials (HAZMAT). Currently there are several large commercial overland vehicle-tracking entities that offer what is referred to as “nationwide” HAZMAT vehicle tracking services. In order to provide location-based services, these tracking organizations require access to local wireless carrier networks for transmission of location and event messages from devices carried on the vehicle. The wireless carriers that provide the tracking companies access to their networks are primarily in the business of marketing voice and data services to millions of consumers of cellular telephones and handheld portable data communications devices. The majority of the wireless carriers' customers are located in large to moderately sized metropolitan service areas. For this reason, the wireless carriers have concentrated on constructing their systems and building their subscriber bases in densely populated regions.
As a result of the wireless carriers concentrating their efforts in the more populated areas, there are many large holes in the “footprint” of cellular coverage across the nation. Thus, during a typical coast-to-coast trip a truck transporting hazardous materials will for the majority of its travel time be outside of the wireless carriers' coverage boundaries. When a HAZMAT vehicle is traveling through any of these holes in wireless service coverage, a tracking device on the vehicle would be unable to transmit location data or event alarms.
If a terrorist organization was planning to commandeer a HAZMAT shipment on a truck traveling on the nation's highways, they could simply access the Internet and obtain the RF coverage maps provided by the different wireless service providers. Based on these maps, they could plan a roadside attack to take place in a remote area that does not have the wireless coverage needed for the real-time reporting of the attack and the location of the event.
In an attempt to overcome this lack of wireless coverage, the “nationwide” HAZMAT tracking companies typically employ an internal continuous GPS data logging technique. This method requires that an onboard microprocessor in the on-board tracking unit obtain GPS-NMEA location data at set intervals and record it in an internal time/date-stamped memory location. That information can later be transmitted to the central tracking center only after the HAZMAT truck re-enters an area where wireless service is available. If a forced takeover event occurred during the time that the truck was outside a wireless coverage area, the on-board device could only record the event, as it would be unable to report it in real-time. Clearly, this does not provide secure “nationwide real-time reporting.” This is an unacceptable situation if HAZMAT security requirements require the ability to send an immediate notification of a takeover event in any geographical location.
Thus, what is needed is a totally ubiquitous location-based reporting system that operates in conjunction with central support network. The reporting system should provide solid safeguards for the protection of hazardous materials during transport and protection of the driver's security in the event of a hostile takeover or an accident. The needed reporting system and network should have a location determination and communication system that is able to operate anywhere in the nation completely independently of the commercial wireless communications carriers.